Early Career Researchers

As a national academic organisation that started in 2013, SAERA has progressively sought to professionalise, cohere and improve educational research and academic work in South Africa. In recent years the association has increasingly sought to focus on building the next generation of scholars and offering support for early career academics.

In 2020 SAERA moved to amend the constitution to facilitate representation of early career scholars on the executive committee based on consultation and feedback from membership. An expansive definition of the Early Career Researcher (ECR) is a person who, within 5 years of completing a Ph.D., or during doctoral or master studies or a research career, is interested in working at a national, regional and international level to:

– broaden research training and professional development experiences;
– exchange experiences and ideas about research and research training;
– develop research projects in collaboration with researchers of different institutions and countries;
– actively participate in a research community for emerging academics

Each year a range of initiatives and workshops are brought forward forming part of a broad strategy to enhance SAERA’s reach and support for the next generation of scholars, and to encourage academic networks to become affiliated and build the SAERA community.

Below are links to these workshops and resources, including SAERA’s ECR Facebook group, and key documents relating to the work to support ECR’s within SAERA.